At the STC conference, I remember someone—possibly Scott Abel in a presentation—saying that technical communicators really ought to be out in the online support forums for the products that they document. I agree; in the forums you can see the problems that real users are having and what the answers are if anyone has provided them. Being the technical writer, you may know some of those answers yourself. But at the very least, you can find out how people are using the product and what frustrates them.

It seems that Adobe heard the call. Within the last couple of days, a self-identified “technical writer for RH working at Adobe” has begun participating in the RoboHelp forums on Adobe’s site.

The RoboHelp experts, Peter Grainge and Rick Stone, have warned forum users that Adobe management does not monitor the forums and use them as sources of feedback about the software. Peter has used his status as an expert to pass some of the more dire problems back to Adobe, and occasionally a RoboHelp product manager will post, but for the most part, until now there has been a disconnect between the forum users and the RoboHelp team.

I don’t know if there are technical writers now participating in other Adobe forums, but this is a good sign. I can’t say whether this technical writer is new, but the fact that she is now participating in the forums indicates that this may be the first attempt at giving the forums some attention.

I would say, however, that this RoboHelp writer has her work cut out for her. Months and months of forum posts and discussions await her perusal and incorporation into the documentation. Many, myself included, have been dissatisfied with RoboHelp’s help system (an irony pointed out by not a few forum users). I imagine I’m not the only RoboHelp user waiting to see what this technical writer will do with this HAT’s own help. I’m sure it can only be improved with the wealth of information she can glean from the forums.